Portfolio: Stephanie Halmos

Stephanie Halmos is a photographer and video artist tackling the representation of female, body politics. Her work references the longstanding approaches of “constructing female imagery, from Rococo painting through snapshots through pornography into bright, conflicting photographs that are at once entertaining and aggressive.”

Moving beyond the sphere of objectification and gazing on women, her work begins to question how the default image of a woman became the white female. “She is a thin, white body in a thin, white economy,” Halmos continues. Be sure to see more Halmos’ work here as she challenges our expectations of viewing naked women.

I am fascinated by the repeated currents within the way “body” functions as an economy. Oftentimes on analogous public forums, you’ll find that correspondents use odd, corporeal terms to describe the economy, i.e. “robust”, “thin”, “weak”, etc. I find it to be a strange articulation, especially when I look at the way in which women are used as economic stimulants. In this economy, a thin, white woman is an effective vehicle of capital, as her body is the one we can project onto. She is the blank slate body.